Magical Realism

How do we imagine living environments in a world facing planetary shifts and ecological challenges? Magical Realism: Imagining Natural Dis/order brings together over thirty artists at WIELS and argos, offering new ideas and perspectives on our relationship with the planet. 

The exhibition is an invitation to move away from systems driven by endless growth and resource extraction, encouraging a deeper connection with the many entanglements that shape our biosphere.

The title of the exhibition is borrowed from the artistic and literary genre known as magical realism, which is characterised by its infusion of worlds of magic, dreams and myth into mundane narratives—creating stories that redefine the boundaries of reality. The exhibition looks at how the porosity between “magic” and “reality” may open up spaces for other horizons to emerge in response to proliferating monocultures, precarious lives, and climate transformation.   

When the world of science and hard facts has been torn apart from the world of magic and intuition, how to reconcile this fracture? What traces does it leave and how do we repair it? The exhibition navigates these questions through works that shape worlds via painting, moving image, sound and installation. They engage with different spaces, from the cosmos and its galaxies to the scientist’s lab; matters such as bodies of water, bacterial skins or 3D prints; and geologic processes surfacing through the underground rumbling of the earth or the noise of a sinking city. 

Magical Realism follows The Absent Museum (2017) and Risquons-tout (2020) as the third of WIELS' large-scale recurring exhibitions, focusing on specific patterns within contemporary artistic practice that underscore the necessity for transformation. 

Through an exhibition—including a section organised at argos—a publication and a public programme with workshops, talks, screenings, walks and performances, Magical Realism reflects an ecology that addresses both the aesthetic implications of our relationship with natural worlds at a tipping point, as well as the social, economic and scientific implications of exploring and shifting our conceptions of the planet.  

Participating artists: Bianca Baldi, Minia Biabiany, Gaëlle Choisne, Ade Darmawan, Edith Dekyndt, Suzanne Husky, Saodat Ismailova, Suzanne Jackson, Ann Veronica Janssens, Joan Jonas, Pauline Julier, Barbara & Michael Leisgen, Anne Marie Maes, Jumana Manna, Marisa Merz, Jota Mombaça, Nour Mobarak, mountaincutters, Otobong Nkanga, Kicsy Abreu Stable, Precious Okoyomon, Elizabeth A. Povinelli, Annie Ratti, Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, Maarten Vanden Eynde & Musasa, Cecilia Vicuña, and Adrián Villar Rojas. 

Curators: Sofia Dati, Helena Kritis, Dirk Snauwaert.

Publication: The exhibition is accompanied by a publication edited by Sofia Dati, assisted by Febe Lamiroy, published by Mercatorfonds / Fonds Mercator. 

The publication features contributions by all artists as well as texts by Karen Barad, Federico Campagna & Febe Lamiroy, Chris Cyrille-Isaac, Sofia Dati, Vinciane Despret & Letícia Renault, Zayaan Khan, Shayma Nader, Susan Schuppli and Dirk Snauwaert. 
Bilingual FR-EN

The exhibition was made possible thanks to the generous support of the WIELS Patrons, the Foundation Willame and Elisa Nuyten.

The project has benefited from the special support of De Nationale Loterij-La Loterie Nationale; TheMerode; Acción Cultural Española (AC/E); the French Embassy in Belgium and the Institut français — EXTRA, a program supporting French contemporary creation in Belgium; Lafayette Anticipations - Fonds de dotation Famille Moulin; Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council; the Institut Ramon Llull; Lhoist.
Xavier Hufkens, Brussel; Mendes Wood DM, Brussel, Parijs en Sao Paulo; Martins&Montero, Brussel en Sao Paulo; Ortuzar Projects, New York.